Mariana Dale

Arizona students learn about wars from ancient times to the present. In one Chandler classroom, a veteran is drawing on his own experience to develop a class about military history. "We're being taught the military and history by someone who's experienced the military, you know, and one day he'll be a part of history because he was there."

The first record of sexual harassment allegations against Tucson school employee John Corral is from January 2000. Corral's story — and a number of other instances like it — reveals a vulnerability in Arizona's system for disciplining school employees accused of sexual misconduct.

“Often people might say you're like this special person and therefore you have special kids and I totally don't necessarily agree with that,” said Heather Joy Magdelano, the mother of two children with disabilities. “I believe that my kids have given me the opportunity to go deeper.”

The latest statewide standardized English and math test results were released Monday: 42% of students passed either test compared to 41% last year. These scores build on slight increases since Arizona first rolled out the test in 2015.

“It’s concerning because poverty is at the root of so many other adverse experiences in childhood,” said Liz Barker Alvarez, chief policy advisor for First Things First, a statewide organization that funds health and education programs to benefit young children.

At the root of the issue is a 2013 Arizona Supreme Court ruling that the state had ignored a 2000 voter-approved mandate to increase state aid to schools annually to keep pace with inflation. Ducey declined to increase taxes to comply with that ruling. Instead he and legislative leaders came up with a plan to tap into the special trust fund.

Arizona’s existing school safety program already pays for 114 schools to employ school resource officers. This year, the state Legislature expanded the program with an additional $20 million and changed the program to include mental health professionals too.

A new review of census data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows while the number of Arizona’s poor neighborhoods has dropped a few percentage points, from 22% to 20%, the state still has some of the highest rates in the country. One in 5 children lives in concentrated poverty here, according to the report.

The Arizona State Board of Education took its first step Monday to immediately suspend the certification of teachers who are arrested for or accused of sexual misconduct.

Hundreds of people marched through downtown Phoenix to the state’s Capitol on Friday afternoon to demand action to mitigate climate change. “It’s really about revitalizing our community,” said Arizona Youth Climate Strike co-leader Aditi Narayanan, a senior at charter school Basis Phoenix.